Monday, 22 August 2011

In my last post I wrote about how the Flash community feels in need of a reboot, to align it better with Flash's new users, and its new role as a games technology. Well, events like Mochi London are probably a big part of that reboot. Mochi London is a free 1 day conference, being held this Saturday (27th August 2011) at King's College London.

I will be speaking there with a brand new session called Addictive Game Design - ok, I've borrowed a lot of the content from my 2010 Flash on the Beach talk ;)

The other speakers include Merlin Gore from Flash Game License, and Mike Jones from Adobe, as well as a whole bunch of other developers. It's free but you need a ticket, so grab one on Eventbrite while there are still spaces. There's also a pub gathering on Sunday, but I won't be able to make it to that. Hope to see you there!

Friday, 5 August 2011

The Flash community needs a complete reboot. From Seb Lee-Delisle to Keith Peters to Jesse Freeman to Ricardo Cabello (mrdoob) many of the most well know Flash developers have either branched out to new technologies, or abandoned Flash completely. While I wish these guys all the best, this obviously has quite a negative effect on the Flash community. For young developers looking on, it must surely seem that Flash is dying, and anyone with any sense is jumping ship for the gold-paved streets of iOS or HTML5. And at the same time, the link-baiting tech tabloids are publishing more and more negative stories about the "obsolete" technology Flash, largely unchallenged by Adobe's former poster boys. Flash is surely dying.

But of course this isn't true. For many applications, such as casual/social games, media players and online advertising, Flash is still the dominant force. And the good news for Adobe is that new talent is entering the Flash world all the time. There has never been a better time to start-up as a game developer, and Flash can claim many of the hottest developers such as Zynga, Vlambeer and Bezerk Studios amongst its users. And while WebGL is having its moment in the sun right now, the bigger reach of Flash Stage3D will surely steal the browser 3D crown when Flash Player 11 is finally released.

What can Adobe do to fix the perception problem? Well for a start they need to reach out and embrace the new generation of Flash users. Why aren't framework developers like Adam (Atomic) Saltsman or Chevy Ray Johnston invited to talk at MAX? They are doing way more for Flash than an old guard who have clearly lost the faith.

The other thing Adobe need to do is start supporting the amazing open-source Flash community with some hard cash. Flash Develop, Away3D, Box2D, TweenMax, Flixel, FlashPunk and many more fine projects all deserve some financial support from the mothership. The Flash open-source community is strong, but how much more could it achieve with the resources it deserves?